Short Attention-Span Good News

1. Pluto has been demoted from planethood by the scientists (okay, so they've renamed it a 'dwarf planet'), but leading astrologers say that as far as they're concerned, it's still a planet to them. After all, they're not scientists.
   
   

   From Astrodienst:
   "In astrology the term planet means something different than a planet in the astronomical sense. For example, astrology also counts the Sun and Moon as planets, in Hindu astrology even Rahu and Ketu, the lunar nodes.
   In astrology a planet is used as a symbol; its properties as a physical object are not very relevant. Astronomy comes in where the position of the planet on the sky and in the chart has to be calculated precisely."
   

   
   Meanwhile, the unnamed body outside Pluto's orbit, the one that caused the astronomical confusion in the first place, has been officially named "Eris". How... appropriate!

   
   

2. At least one Pagan veteran is getting a pentacle tombstone. Nevada has done what the Veterans' Administration refused to do. Sergeant Patrick Stewart (not the actor, Chandonn, stop clutching your chest!), killed in Afghanistan and posthumously awarded the Bronze Star and the Purple Heart, was a devout Wiccan. His widow requested that his headstone bear a pentacle, a symbol of his faith, but the VA refused. Never mind that they've approved over 30 symbols, including one for atheists. Guess there are atheists in foxholes... Fortunately, state officials in Nevada obtained a legal opinion stating that feds don't have any say over what goes up in state veterans' cemeteries. We say, Blessed Be!

   
   

3. The University of Kentucky Staff Senate has asked the University administration to follow the University of Louisville in offering domestic partner benefits.

   
   

4. All charges have been dropped against Mardin Amin, the man who took his penis pump to the airport. Prosecutors believe that there is a good chance the man's whispered words were simply interpreted. Personally, I think they decided that being known as the man with the penis pump internationally was punishment enough.

   
   

5. Singin' in the Rain was named the best musical ever by the American Film Institute. I fully agree, but The Rocky Horror Picture Show should at least have made the list!